Increase in IoT security breaches has facilitated the growth of the Managed Security Services industry. The economic well being of the health care industry has also been affected by IoT focused cyber attacks.
IoT Breaches and Managed Security Services
- The magnitude of IoT breaches has increased in recent years. Cyber-attacks have become more severe, causing total public shutdowns. An example is when Saint Maarten public functions were shut down for the whole day.
- The city of Atlanta was also crippled for two weeks by a ransomware attack. Other cities that have been victims of cyber-attacks because of their transition to smart city technology are Baltimore, Charlotte, Dallas and San Francisco.
- Apart from government institutions, organization are also exposed to IoT based attacks. 20% of organizations have already experienced IoT based attacks. The number of attacks will only increase since the number of connected devices is expected to reach 75 billion by 2025.
- The increased attacks on IoT environments has caused global security expenditure to reach $93 billion in 2018.
- Organizations have therefore realized that IoT breach is imminent due to the increase in volume and severity of cyberattacks. This is largely due to the deployment of myriads of IoT devices.
- It is important to note that most organizations do not have the required expertise and skill set to deal with increasingly sophisticated and automated attacks. Organizations have, therefore turned to security services providers to compensate for the skills they lack. This has caused the managed security services industry to grow, impacting the global economy.
- The managed security services industry is growing at a CAGR of 7%. The industry value is expected to reach $47.648 billion by 2023.
IoT and HealthCare
- Most healthcare organizations that leverage IoT devices have faced a cyber attack in the year 2019.
- Cyber-attacks have targeted82% of healthcare organizations IoT devices. The number of attacks in the healthcare industry is higher than in other organizations.
- 90% of the healthcare organization that had an IoT breach had an operation downtime, experienced reputation damage, end-user safety and compromised data.
- Only 11% of the organizations that were attacked said that they experienced no impacts after the attack.
- An example of a healthcare organization that suffered an IoT attack is Michigan Medical. The organization was forced to close after attackers erased all patient information and appointment schedules.
- Another attack was on Grays Harbor Community Hospital and Harbor Medical Group. Attackers in this case demanded $1 million to unlock patient files.
- The economic impact of IoT focused cyber attacks is an increase in the operational cost of healthcare organizations. IoT breaches cost health care organizations $346,205 on average. These costs include loss of business and the cost of correcting the vulnerabilities experienced.